Five Palestinians have been injured by Israeli forces escorting hundreds of settlers into a shrine in the occupied West Bank. RNA - Ma’an news agency quoted local sources as saying that clashes erupted between local Palestinians and Israeli forces after hundreds of Israeli settlers attempted to enter the compound of Joseph’s Tomb (Qabr Yusuf), east of Nablus, under Israeli army protection in the early hours of Tuesday.
According to the report, the Israeli forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, and sound bombs at the Palestinians.
Joseph’s Tomb is situated in the West Bank’s so-called Area A, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority; however, the Israeli military allows the settlers to visit the site without approval.
This is while the regime prevents Muslims from worshiping there.
The Israelis claim that the site contains the tomb of a rabbi, but the site is part of an old mosque where Muslim scholar Yusuf Dweekat has been buried.
Palestinian locals say Israel is planning to retake control of the historical site, which the Tel Aviv regime had to give up in 2000.
About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Separately, Israeli forces carried out raids in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem al-Quds at dawn on Tuesday, arresting 14 Palestinians.
It was unclear why they were arrested.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails. Hundreds of them have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of “administrative detention,” a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention centers without trial or charge.
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